


Setting Things Right

by minkhollow



Series: protag!Kanji [6]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 10:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8282383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: “You – what are you going to do when you find the person who killed your sister?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> While I haven't played PQ, I've read the P4 side of the manga (what's been translated so far, at least); this parallels a conversation Ken and Yosuke have there.

Ken’s gone around a corner before anyone can manage to stop him. Really, given the tone of the conversation right before he bolted, Naoki can’t really blame him, but the fact remains that they have no idea what they’re up against in this pocket dimension, labyrinth or no labyrinth. Besides, there’s no reason to disregard Rule One just because they didn’t get here via the TV.

“I got it,” he says to Kanji and Minako-san; the dog (a _dog_ with a Persona? What next, the fox managing to get herself one?) follows him. Any other time he’d want more backup, but Ken seems to like Koromaru – granted, so does everyone, but that’s beside the point.

The only downside is that Koromaru barks when they find Ken, huddled against the side of Margaret-san’s fortune-telling booth, completely ruining whatever element of surprise they might have had. Ken starts, but doesn’t bolt again, and that’s at least a good sign.

“Hey,” Naoki says. “You really shouldn’t run off on your own like that.”

“We split up in Tartarus all the time.”

“And how often has that gotten you ambushed by something you can’t handle alone?”

Ken mutters something about Hama spells, but at least has the good grace to look sheepish. Naoki’s going to go out on a limb and guess the answer to that question is ‘a lot.’ Before he can ask what running off was all about, Ken says, “You – what are you going to do when you find the person who killed your sister?”

Naoki blinks; that was not the question he was expecting. “…Turn them in to the police, of course. That’s been the plan from the beginning.”

“But he must have a Persona, right? The police will never believe that! What if he gets away with it?”

Koromaru whimpers and settles down next to Ken, resting his head on the kid’s knee. As Ken pets Koromaru, still looking pretty upset, Naoki takes a moment to consider that point. Obviously this has hit a very personal nerve, or Ken wouldn’t have gotten so worked up about it, and… well, it’s casting his Persona in a pretty troubling light, now that Naoki thinks about it. Non-Japanese mythology isn’t his strong suit, but he _does_ know what a nemesis is in English.

“I’ll grant that the cops in town aren’t… all that imaginative,” he says. There’s no getting around that; Dojima-san would probably look at anyone who told the truth about the TV world like they’d grown a second head, and the rest of Inaba’s finest aren’t worth bothering with. “On the other hand, a body hanging from a telephone pole is kind of hard to ignore. That and we have some evidence tying whoever did that to what’s been going on; we just need them to slip up and give us a little more.”

Hopefully without anyone else dying. Two victims is more than enough – would have been more than enough if Saki hadn’t stumbled into being one of them.

Ken sighs. “They said Mom was a victim of a random crime. But she _wasn’t_. I just want to make it right.”

Well, that explains a lot. Naoki wishes they didn’t have that kind of loss in common – all the more devastating since the SEES group seems to be made up of orphans and people who might as well not have living relatives. All the same, though, he can’t help sighing himself.

“Look, kid, do you want justice or revenge? They’re two different things. Sis… wouldn’t want me to hurt someone to get back at them, even for her, and I don’t think I’d feel any better if I did. If I can stop them from hurting someone else, I’ll be okay.”

He’s not convinced they’re talking about the same kind of situation anyway. Ken jumped to ‘they must have a Persona’ awfully fast; it’s not a theory they’ve considered, mostly because they don’t know exactly what allows people into the TV world unaided, or if the culprit’s been in there themselves. As far as Naoki can tell, that means whoever hurt Ken’s mother is most likely back at the labyrinth entrance, waiting for them to come back.

And given that, they’ve probably beaten themselves up for it more than anything an avenging kid can do. Naoki just hopes Ken manages to realise that before he does something drastic.

Ken just shrugs, and dislodges Koromaru’s head so he can stand back up. “We should go. We’ve kept them waiting long enough.”


End file.
